Zarqawi's fighters in 'heart of Baghdad'

By James Drummond in Baghdad

Financial Times

Published: September 18 2004

US
officials said on Friday that Islamist fighters linked to militant leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi are operating close to government headquarters in Baghdad.

The
admission came as a car bomb struck a police checkpoint in Rashid Street, the
old commercial centre of the Iraqi capital, killing eight people. The toll
would have been higher had it not been a Friday when many shops and businesses
are closed.

A second car bomb in Baghdad was foiled when guards opened
fire and killed the two men inside.

In an effort to stem the violence,
Iraqi police and national guard units launched a crackdown on the Haifa street
neighbourhood of Baghdad on Friday.

The area is about 2km north of the
Green Zone, where the US and British embassies and interim Iraqi government are
based.

"Iraqi police and national guard have got targetable
intelligence. They are going after individuals that have known relationships to
terrorist activitie s, to the Zarqawi network and to insurgents," a senior US
officer said on Friday of Haifa street.

"We'll see by the end of the day
and by tomorrow how effective it is at capturing some of these key folks," the
officer said.

The comments will do little to deflect the view that
Baghdad is a city increasingly under siege by militants determined to spread an
insurgency which grips several mainly Sunni cities in northern and western Iraq.

Mr Zarqawi is thought to be the leader of one of several Islamist groups
based in Falluja and is held responsible for the kidnap and execution of several
foreigners.

Haifa Street, west of the Tigris river, is believed to have
been used as the launch site for a heavy bombardment of the Green Zone last
Sunday.

US forces subsequently killed at least a dozen people in the
district after an armoured fighting vehicle was blown up. On Tuesday nearly 50
Iraqis, most of them potential police recruits, were killed when a car bomb
struck a nearby police st ation apparently in retaliation.

Overnight on
Thursday and on Friday, the US military mounted two air raids on Falluja, west
of Baghdad, and killed up to 60 foreign insurgents.

The US military said
the first of the air strikes had targeted a compound in the village of Qaryat
al-Rufush, near Falluja, where up to 90 foreign militants were meeting to plan
attacks. The Iraqi government and its US backers however provided little
evidence for the presence of non-Iraqi fighters in the country.

The US
military said it was embarked on a campaign to pacify areas of Iraq outside
central government control, ahead of elections due in January. The UN has said
the elections cannot go ahead unless the security situation improves.

βΆ
Iraq's national carrier, Iraqi Airways, will resume international flights on
Saturday after 14 years grounded by war and sanctions, Reuters reports.

The airline will begin scheduled flights to Syria and Jordan twice a
week.

"This is the first step for Iraqi Airways. We hope to expand our
services to Dubai within weeks," an airline official said.

More
international flights could help boost Iraq's reconstruction by providing more
travel alternatives for businessmen and investors keen to avoid highways plagued
by bandits and gunmen.

But with security deteriorating, and a wave of
kidnappings of foreigners, many foreigners choose not to come. Until now there
have only been a few daily commercial flights in and out of Baghdad, almost all
to Amman.